Beloved friends, the Lord bless you for tuning in today to the broadcast, and we greet you and we welcome you in the precious name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We look to our Lord above for his blessing upon the ministry of his precious word, as we continue our present theme, the glory of the cross. May the words of the beloved Apostle Paul go very deep, down into the depths of our hearts when he said, God forbid that I should glory or boast, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Galatians chapter six and verse fourteen. Through the cross of Christ, God has provided forgiveness of sins. Through the cross of Christ, God has provided justification, the means whereby a believing sinner has the condemnation of his and her sins removed. Through the cross of Christ, God has provided redemption, that is, deliverance from sin's penalty, from its power, and ultimately from sin's presence when the Savior comes for all who have believed upon his name. Now we would consider another divine provision, which God has made for all mankind through the blood of the cross, the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is the provision and the blessing of reconciliation. Now let us first consider why is reconciliation needed by every sinner? The need of reconciliation. What does God's word reveal concerning that need? First, what is the opposite meaning to reconciliation? Is it not to be alienated, estranged? from God, and this alienation, or it says, strange man from God, has been produced on our part by our sins. This is one of the gravest effects that sin and a great tragedy that sin has brought to take us away from God, to be separated from him. Now let's look at God's word, what he has to say about it. First we quote from Isaiah chapter fifty-nine and verse two, where God says, But your iniquities are separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you. Was not this proved when even Adam and Eve, our first parents, sinned in the Garden of Eden? For there we read, when they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day? Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord amongst the trees of the garden? Genesis chapter three and verse eight. Now, beloved, are not we who are the descendants of Adam and Eve, very much like them today? We seek to hide ourselves from God, and why? Only one reason is because of our sins. May I go further and remind you that in the days before the great flood in the days of Noah, this was also true of the human race, being afar from God. For we read that God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually, Genesis six and verse five. Even in greater proportion, The alienation from God became in the days before the flood. Why? It was the result of increasing wickedness and sin. More preference was given to sin, and men preferred sin instead of God. Isn't that true today? Now, did you ever know why many lands? Did you ever know why many nations? have been and even are now in what we call heathen darkness? The Holy Spirit in chapter one of the Book of Romans, and I quote in part, but you will read if you take the context from verse nineteen to the end of chapter one in the Book of Romans, you will find in minute detail why some nations are and have been in even darkness. Not knowing God, but idolaters? Read the chapter for yourself. But let me quote, verse twenty-eight, please, if I may. Solemn words which God says regarding them, even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, they came to the time in their history that they said, We don't want to know God. Neither do we want to hear about Him. And know what follows. Please may I point out to you, you've got it in verse twenty-four, you've got it in verse twenty-six, too. God gave them over to a reprobate mind. God gave them up. What a sad state when men insist on getting rid of God. Now, my beloved, let me plainly tell you and put before you. Incidentally, what do you think God's going to do? Even now as men are seeking to get gone out of human government, gone out of the institutions of learning, gone out of our schools, gone out of our homes, gone out of all places of society. Please let me say, payday is going to happen, and it will come. Do you think so? I verily do. But let me go further, please. Listen to Genesis chapter, or Romans rather, chapter three. The book of Romans chapter three and verse eleven. And here you've got the whole human race included in God's accusation of getting away from him. God says there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. Romans three and verse eleven. What a blanket condemnation and accusation. No one's seeking after God. Now why such strong language? Because the turning away from God has become universal. You may not be a pagan. You may not be a heathen idolater. You may boast yourself to be a red-blooded, civilized American in the land of freedom and claiming to be in the home of the brave. And you may be singing, My country is of thee, sweet land of liberty, our national anthem. And still, you can be separated from God. Let us take God at His word. Is he right? Is he just when he accuses? There's none that understandeth. There's none that seeketh after God. Please let me ask you, look at your people, your friends, and all who are around you today in life. How many do you find seeking after God? Now let me make this very clear, not lead you into any misconception. I know that there are many Christians, myself included, who will come to know God, to love Him, and to seek to serve Him. But let me ask my fellow believers, did you seek God first or did he seek you first? Do you recall the first question recorded in the Bible? It was a question that God asked when Adam and Eve hid themselves behind the trees. God said, Adam, where are thou? Adam and Eve did not wish to see God. And before anyone has ever said, this is true of them. We did not seek God. But found it was God who was seeking us. That is the true story of the Bible. The Bible is not the story of man seeking God as something. Just the opposite. Did not the Lord Jesus say, when he came to the earth in Luke, nineteen ten, for the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost? I think of an incident in my business life. A young Christian I was. I overheard a member of the firm for which I was working conversing about the Bible with his secretary. One asked the other, what is the Bible anyway? What is it all about? I heard one answer, saying the Bible is the story of man seeking God. Well, I'd not been saved very long, but having found myself to be a lost, held deserving sinner, who now knew Christ as his Savior, I interrupted and said, No, I don't believe that. It's the other way around. The Bible is the story of God seeking man. I doubt that it sank into their hearts and minds, but I can say and still say, Once I was lost, but now I am found. My beloved friend, it's God that's seeking you. It was God that was seeking me. Ah, beloved, may I say very frankly, you know why Christ came from heaven? It came because men were not seeking God. And God had to seek them. Haven't you read the parable of Luke chapter fifteen? You've got the parable of the lost sheep. You've got the parable of the lost coin. You've got the parable of the lost boy. And was it not the shepherd that was seeking the lost sheep? Was it not the woman that was looking for the lost coin? Was it not the father's heart that was grieving and longing and watching for the lost boy to come home? We need to be reconciled to God. Let's gather the thoughts together in conclusion, and tomorrow we'll follow through with our subject on this truth of reconciliation. First let us realize we need to be reconciled to God. It is universal in its need, and no better words could testify to the fact than the words of the prophet Isaiah in chapter fifty-three and verse six. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone, not just a few others, everyone to his own way. Ah, beloved, how far have we got? Please let me say, there's one thing you never got too far away, but what God could see you, and know you, and think of you, and want you to be reconciled. Oh, according to Romans chapter five and verse ten, we find that these words the Apostle Paul wrote to say, we were enemies of God. You know, people don't realize that they're enemies of God. A dear young friend of mine, in service during World War II, told me he heard one of his companions taking the name of the Lord in vain. He went to the boy and he said, Son, you're an enemy of God, don't you? Aren't you? No, he says, I'm not. I don't hate God. He said, well, he said, I heard you taking his name in vain. And the Bible says, God said, mine enemies take my name in vain. Anytime you hear a man taking the name of Jesus and the name of God in vain, believe what the Bible says, mine enemies take my name in vain. Yes, we become even enemies of God. My sinner friend, if you're still separated from God, unsaid, God bid you to come and be reconciled. You can find that Christ, God's beloved Son, died on the cross. to bring you to God. And as an ambassador for Christ, I gladly and I earnestly beseech you. We pray you in Christ's stead. Be ye reconciled to God, and no matter how far you have roamed away from him, you can always come back, if you will. May God, by his Spirit, convict you and bring you. Shall we pray? Oh, blessed Father! The whole human race went astray because of sin. But what love? God so loved the world he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish for that everlasting life. May someone trust the Savior now. Amen.